False conclusions can be drawn from Old Testament events which suggest that the Lord had a favorite people—that there was something exclusive about being from the House of Israel, irrespective of personal righteousness. The Savior had to put this ethno-centrism into perspective with the comment, think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham (Matt 3:9).
The message of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that the gospel is for everyone, without regard to race, color, or creed. Nephi tells us just how mindful the Lord has been of every people—that the Lord has been speaking to nations other than just the Nephites and Jews, For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written (2 Nephi 29:11).
Hugh Nibley
“It is convenient to imagine all the righteous in one camp and the wicked in another, and this has been the usual and comfortable interpretation of the Book of Mormon—it is the good guys versus the bad guys. But this is exactly what the Book of Mormon tells us to avoid. God plays no favorites. Nephi rebukes his brothers for believing that because they are Jews they are righteous; God does not judge by party, he tells them; a good man is good and a bad one is bad, according to his own behavior: ’Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God’ (1 Nephi 17:35). Family and race and nationality account for nothing; ’God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people’ (Alma 26:37). He numbers them as his own, not as being on one side or the other of a boundary; ’the Lord doth grant unto all nations … to teach his word … all that he seeth fit that they should have’ (Alma 29:8)” (The Prophetic Book of Mormon, p. 506)